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ELYSIUM by William K. Carlson

ELYSIUM

By

Pub Date: Aug. 20th, 1982
ISBN: 0385504381
Publisher: Doubleday

Several thousand years hence, the Earth is called Elysium: an ecologically impeccable, agrarian utopia whose citizens worship the goddess Talanis and defer to her benevolent but ruthless ""co-ordinators."" In this setting, then, naive young plant breeder Nicolo, instructed by stern co-ordinator Rebekah, heads for the wilderness in search of new legumes and meets heretic Marya--who has evaded the system and produced an illegal son, Tomas. Nicolo, soon moving in with Marya, finds his faith in the co-ordinators crumbling. (Marya suspects them of withholding advanced technology and deliberately keeping the populace ignorant and simple-minded.) So, finally, revengeful Rebekah tries to capture the happy family--and they are obliged to flee. Decorative travelogue, syrupy young love (with some fairly appealing adolescent sex), thinny-thin plot: a slick, unabashedly YA-ish, and moderately entertaining followup to Carlson's Sunrise West debut (1981).